People were tired with the plantón, fed up with us teachers encamped in the zócalo. But with the repression, Ulises Ruiz energized and woke up the whole society. —Patricia A., schoolteacher
I believe that we are making Oaxaca’s history, but a very different history, a history where women have played an important role. In the barricades, in the sit-ins, it was the women who were there. There was a total, radical transformation of women. —Ita, schoolteacher, member of
Colectivo Mujer Nueva
People should forget the idea that a leader, or a group of them, can give direction to a movement. We are the ones, as we demonstrated during 2006, who can realize important actions and also devise strategies to defeat the system. I believe the majority is looking for a total change, not simply for a change of governor or president. We are looking to create a new type of government, a new constitution. But it is the people who have to start thinking about this and not wait for the leaders to do it for us. —Gaby, Colectivo Mujer Nueva
We don’t believe in political militancy, and the people do not want to be militants. If you invite them to militate, they will reject you. The spaces in which they meet are their own spaces. The barricades were that space: a non-militant space where everybody dropped by, and everyone had a common purpose: to defend Oaxaca from the death squads. Therefore, inspired a bit by this experience, we decided that we would not form a collective, nor an organization, nor a front of organizations, but rather a space in which everyone who fights for autonomy from the political parties, those who want to reorganize, those who want to pursue whatever initiative for autonomy can meet regardless of whether they come every week, every two weeks, once or month, or every day. Everyone who wants to can come regardless of whether they are Oaxacan or not, because the barricades were made by people from all different walks of life. —Ruben Valencia, Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad (VOCAL)
From interviews conducted in August 2007.
